Only some people can work in a group setting, understandably. As a recent graduate and candidate of the IB diploma program, studying with a group showed more benefits than working alone. I had a study group of three to four people, sometimes more when it came to harder subjects. Thus, many factors can make or break a study group such as the people, the environment, and your determination, but it can provide beneficial advantages such as motivation, knowledge, and perspectives.
Motivation and Support:
We all know that all motivation is out of the window when exam season comes. My friends and I would constantly joke that we had no motivation and would rather just wing it. Of course, none of us wanted to “wing it” because it was serious for us. So we decided to create a study group. We would meet at the library and create a mini classroom. I can recall one moment over the month that we studied, I genuinely did not feel like studying at all and if I looked at another practice I was going to flip out. Fortunately, I was studying with my friends; they helped me relax and even gave me support and motivation to continue studying. Additionally, it was very important to us to create times to genuinely take breaks and not think about anything IB. When studying alone, it can be difficult to take a break and actually return to studying. I had instances where I would tell myself, “Oh, I’ll take a ten-minute break then continue to study.” Please, we all know how that ended; I went right on TikTok and spent thirty minutes scrolling. If I was with my friends, they would help me to be diligent. Thus find people who can help give you motivation and support to study for exams or in general. Like the cliche saying, “Teamwork makes the dream work!” Literally.
Sharing Knowledge:
As I stated before, we created a classroom environment for ourselves. Especially when one of us knew a subject better than the other, that person would teach the others the subject. It might sound ridiculous to have a classroom away from the classroom, but surprisingly it was pretty helpful. This is because we were allowed to focus solely on what we knew that we needed help with. For instance, I have always struggled with math and always scored lower in math; I have complained many times to my friends about this. Unfortunately, the math exams were first this year and I was genuinely panicking. So when we started our study sessions in the library, I knew I really needed to focus on math. My friends would use websites such as Revision Dojo to use practice questions and teach me the concepts that I was struggling with. Honestly, this is a good method to do when studying because the only way to study math is to do math, sadly…. Having a group of people to teach you directly, unlike in a normal classroom where you only have one teacher who has to teach more than twenty students. Moreover, I even had the chance to teach; in literature, I helped my friends understand the novels and helped find correlations between the novels. When working alone, you are limited in your knowledge, but with a group, each member can express their knowledge, enhancing the group’s overall capability of boosting success.
Diverse Perspective:
Lastly, what I consider the most important, with a group, you are not limited in perspective. Throughout IB, we learn that perspective is a pretty big thing; it allows us to be open-minded. When working alone, can limit innovation and cause us to be limited in what we know, leading us in the wrong direction. There are many instances where I faced difficulty studying when I was alone, this may not be the case for everyone. When studying alone, I had trouble coming up with ideas and finding correlations between novels when studying for literature. However, when I met up with my study group, I found it to be easier to create correlations, as I was able to build off their ideas, leading to the creation of out-of-the-box ideas. As previously stated, my group and I created a mini classroom; with this, we used each other to our fullest potential. We guided each other and gave feedback on the ideas that we expressed.
Of course sometimes our ideas were just way out of the box because we were going insane with the amount of studying, but when it came to it, we locked in when we needed it. I know IB is overwhelming at times, especially with exam season, but with the right people, studying can be easier and maybe even fun. (Sometimes…studying is still studying nonetheless.) I recommend to anyone overwhelmed by studying to create a group of people to study with, does not have to be large as that would not be as helpful, but smaller so that it is easier to have direct help.
Overall, if junior year me asked if I should create a study group to start studying for exams, I would 100% say yes. Studying with a group allowed me to grow my knowledge and abilities that I never knew I could reach. When alone, it is easier to fall into despair and a sense of defeat, but with the right people and help, you will find new ways to reach the potential and level of knowledge that you had no idea of reaching. In the first few weeks of studying with my group, I was able to stay motivated without burning myself out. I believe that everyone will benefit from creating a study group. The people you work with will provide motivation, knowledge, and perspectives that will be helpful to you during the overwhelming, stressful exam season.
Only some people can work in a group setting, understandably. As a recent graduate and candidate of the IB diploma program, studying with a group showed more benefits than working alone. I had a group of three to four people, sometimes more when it came to harder subjects. Thus, many factors can make or break a study group such as the people, the environment, and your determination, but it can provide beneficial advantages such as motivation, knowledge, and perspectives.
Motivation and Support:
We all know that all motivation is out of the window when exam season comes. My friends and I would constantly joke that we had no motivation and would rather just wing it. Of course, none of us actually wanted to “wing it” because it was serious for us. So we decided to create a study group. We would meet at the library and create a mini classroom. I can recall one moment over the month that we studied, I genuinely did not feel like studying at all and if I looked at another practice I was going to flip out. Fortunately, I was studying with my friends; they helped me relax and even gave me support and motivation to continue studying. Additionally, it was very important to us to create times to genuinely take breaks and not think about anything IB. When studying alone, it can be difficult to take a break and actually return to studying. I had instances where I would tell myself, “Oh, I’ll take a ten-minute break then continue to study.” Please, we all know how that ended; I went right on TikTok and spent thirty minutes scrolling. If I was with my friends, they would help me to be diligent. Thus find people who can help give you motivation and support to study for exams or in general. Like the cliche saying, “Teamwork makes the dream work!” Literally.
Sharing Knowledge:
As I stated before, we created a classroom environment for ourselves. Especially when one of us knew a subject better than the other, that person would teach the others the subject. It might sound ridiculous to have a classroom away from the classroom, but surprisingly it was pretty helpful. This is because we were allowed to focus solely on what we knew that we needed help with. For instance, I have always struggled with math and always scored lower in math; I have complained many times to my friends about this. Unfortunately, the math exams were first this year and I was genuinely panicking. So when we started our study sessions in the library, I knew I really needed to focus on math. My friends would use websites such as Revision Dojo to use practice questions and teach me the concepts that I was struggling with. Honestly, this is a good method to do when studying because the only way to study math is to do math, sadly…. Having a group of people to teach you directly, unlike in a normal classroom where you only have one teacher who has to teach more than twenty students. Moreover, I even had the chance to teach; in literature, I helped my friends understand the novels and helped find correlations between the novels. When working alone, you are limited in your knowledge, but with a group, each member can express their knowledge, enhancing the group’s overall capability of boosting success.
Diverse Perspective:
Lastly, what I consider the most important, with a group, you are not limited in perspective. Throughout IB, we learn that perspective is a pretty big thing; it allows us to be open-minded. When working alone, can limit innovation and cause us to be limited in what we know, leading us in the wrong direction. There are many instances where I faced difficulty studying when I was alone, this may not be the case for everyone. When studying alone, I had trouble coming up with ideas and finding correlations between novels when studying for literature. However, when I met up with my study group, I found it to be easier to create correlations, as I was able to build off their ideas, leading to the creation of out-of-the-box ideas. As previously stated, my group and I created a mini classroom; with this, we used each other to our fullest potential. We guided each other and gave feedback on the ideas that we expressed.
Of course, sometimes our ideas were just way out of the box because we were going insane with the amount of studying, but when it came to it, we locked in when we needed it. I know IB is overwhelming at times, especially with exam season, but with the right people, studying can be easier and maybe even fun. (Sometimes…studying is still studying nonetheless.) I recommend to anyone overwhelmed by studying to create a group of people to study with, does not have to be large as that would not be as helpful, but smaller so that it is easier to have direct help.
Conclusion:
Overall, if junior year me asked if I should create a study group to start studying for exams, I would 100% say yes. Studying with a group allowed me to grow my knowledge and abilities that I never knew I could reach. When alone, it is easier to fall into despair and a sense of defeat, but with the right people and help, you will find new ways to reach the potential and level of knowledge that you had no idea of reaching. In the first few weeks of studying with my group, I was able to stay motivated without burning myself out. I believe that everyone will benefit from creating a study group. The people you work with will provide motivation, knowledge, and perspectives that will be helpful to you during the overwhelming, stressful exam season.
